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La memoría de Mexico- Mexican memoires

© Hans Hereijgers

Before embarking upon particular aspects of Mexican history, it seems to me that a broad outline is in order. I would rather contemplate its history from a distance and briefly cover every stage of the process, than dig into it very deeply at this moment, so one can understand the broad picture. Later on, I hope to be able to give an idea of how the particular aspects fit into that picture. Most of us have heard of the Aztecs, of Emiliano Zapata and we know that California was once part of Mexico. But what have they got to do with one another? Did Zapata beat the Aztecs in California or was it the other way around? Who knows...

Mexico-City has been the heart of Mexico since the Aztecs were living there. Except, they called it Tenochtitlán (a good thing it was changed). Young Mexicans learn at school that the city was founded in 1325, the year in which the Aztecs, who were a semi-nomadic people, saw an eagle devouring a snake on a cactus. That was the sign of their God, Huitzilopochtli, that they should settle down. The same myth says that the Aztecs came from a place called Aztlán, which today is situated somewhere in the north of Mexico. The Aztecs were a very strong people: they subjected all other native indian tribes in the area, such as the Maya, the Olmec, the Zapotec and the Totonac. However, one day, a Spaniard arrived with a handful of soldiers and horses...

That Spaniard's name was Hernán Cortés. In 1519 he set foot in Mexico and would start the conquest of the country. One must be either brave or stupid to do something like that, because at the time he and his soldiers arrived in Tenochtitlán, the city already had 200.000 inhabitants. However, due to good fortune and Cortés' intelligence, they succeeded in their attempt and in 1521 Mexico no longer pertained to the Aztecs, but to the Spanish Crown. Cortés decided to rebuild the city he had just destroyed but would call it "Mexico", the name the Aztecs used to refer to themselves. Maybe to honour them... but most of all because he was not able to pronounce Tenochtitlán, and who could blame him?

By 1700 the city's population had grown to about a hundred thousand people: whites, indians, slaves imported from Africa and all kinds of mixtures of those races. The elite was formed by the gachupines or Spanish immigrants and the criollos or Spanish people born in the New World. At the beginning of the 18th Century the German scientist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt described Mexico City as one of the most prospering cities of the New World. Meanwhile, Spain was involved in many European wars and had neither time nor money to invest in the colony. That and the independence of the United States in 1776 were the main causes of the inevitable: in 1821 Mexico became an independent country.